Hello America, Hello Poland

Hello friends, today I thought I'd show you one of my artist books… WITAJ POLSKA! Hello Poland! WITAJ AMERICA! Hello America! My current book arts work has involved working in a “designer as reporter” approach, developing my own graphic commentary and response to current events. I continue to be interested in exploring the relationship between representation of information and increasing the expressive quality of text and image in current events. I continue to explore book arts work that seeks to answer the questions such as, what happens to the fleeting news information in a more permanent form? How does the sequence of content and imagery influence the messaging? How does the structure and form of the book inform or enhance the information? This book, WITAJ POLSKA! Hello Poland! WITAJ AMERICA! Hello America! seeks to become an important individual exploration as I continue to discover my personal approach towards a visual language, as well as contributing to contemporary societal dialog. This book seeks to interplay between personal narratives and historical events through the use of the collage form. The first side of the do-si-do combines subject matter, which consists of mainly historical events and contexts, linear and non-linear memories that have occurred in my grandmother’s past. The text was taken through extensive interviewing. The second section of the do-si-do connects to my own life and more recent national and international events. The project grew out of a trip I took to Poland with my eighty-six year old Grandmother to explore her Polish ancestry. The book details the story of their immigration to America and her life over the decades. The book unites our lives and as well as areas where we depart and have our differences. The original one-of-a-kind book contains handmade collages. The edition contains scans of the collages with letterpressed text printed on Japanese paper and affixed to the collages. The goal was to give the sensibility of a collage through the use of the letterpress text. The gradual change in typography shows the differences between our generations. [caption id="attachment_1967" align="alignnone" width="220"] cover[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1966" align="alignnone" width="220"] Interior page[/caption]